appliances on standby

[watervole]

I've finally got around to doing something that I should have done a year ago. We've long had the habit of switching the TV off at the wall rather than leaving it on standby, though we have to confess that this virtue originated with the TV having a dodgy capacitor and refusing to work most of the time unless it was switched off at the socket. (using my handy gadget for measuring electicity, I discover that this has probably saved us around a fiver a year).

What we did today was to rearrange plugs and sockets so that other things like the stereo and the DVD player are now easy to switch off at the wall (they're all on the same on the same socket bar now)

In the case of the DVD player, this is saving very little electriticy as it uses next to nothing on standby. However, I was horrified when I measured the stereo. It was drawing 30 watts! That may not sound like much, but taken over a year that's about £26.

How to help the planet and save cash at the same time.

(Sadly, we can't do similar with the satellite box as that has to remain on)

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

My Freeview box seems quite happy to be turned off at the wall, which is a relief. We used a Sky box without a Sky subscription for 'freesat', which also was happy - until it mysteriously stopped working for totally unconnected reasons (== Boof! got territorial on it after Sick Kitty died).

[watervole.livejournal.com]

The skybox instructions say it will be unable to download programme data and the like if we switch it off. As we use a Tivo, I cannot currently see a way around it.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I think you're stuck. We are able to BitTorrent all the programmes we currently follow, luckily.

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

That's impressively bad. In my opinion it would be much better if manufacturers were required to design appliances that actually power down properly in standby except when they really need to wake up to perform some task like recording a programme. It's not at all technically difficult or expensive to design a standby circuit that only consumes a milliwatt or so, yet is able to watch an IR receiver and power the appliance up when it sees the appropriate code. It's slightly more difficult but not at all impossible to build digiboxes that power themselves down properly most of the time and only wake up when a realtime clock (with digital-watch-like power consumption) tells it it's time to perform some task like downloading the programme guide.

I came across this site today and thought you might find it interesting: http://www.turnuptheheat.org/ (http://www.turnuptheheat.org/)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I always switch the television off with the button on the television. Does that count? Doing it at the wall would actually mean pulling that plug out of the one-to-four plug extension that has the NTL box and VCR on it too, which I don't want to switch off.

The stereo I switch on a couple of times a year, so I'm OK on that. A bit dismayed that my electricity bill from Scottish Power, to whom I switched because they were supposed to be greener, is 80% up on the equivalent quarterly bill from Powergen last year.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I always switch the television off with the button on the television. Does that count?

No. It's almost certainly still drawing some power. You can get one-to-four plug extensions that have individual switches on them. That's your solution. You'd be able to switch off the VCR as well, that way. (I mean, you can't want the VCR on very often, and that too will save something if switched off at the wall)

My electricity usage had been rising slowly, but surely, each year. My aim is to start a steady downward movement.

80% is a big jump. My philosophy on green electricity is that they're producing the hydroelectric power (which is what Scottish electric do) anyway, whether I'm buying it or not. Therefore, I'm concentrating on reducing consumption.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Actually, I may not be correct there. When you've switched it off at the wall, see if you can switch it on again by using the remote. If you can, then it's drawing power. If you can't, then you're in the clear.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

It is unfortunate that various appliances vary enormously by brand. Some use miniscule quantities of power while on standby, while others (such as your stereo, apparently) use vast amounts.

One thing which needs more investigation is whether the savings are really worthwhile in the long run. In the past, many items (such as TVs) have been said to last longer if left in standby mode, avoiding the level of thermal stress of regularly cycling on and off. My TV has been left in standby mode for most of its life (30 years), no doubt using a considerable amount of power ... but I suspect that, had it died from being repeatedly power cycled, the power requirements for building and shipping replacement TV(s) may have been even higher that that used for permanent standby. I honestly don't know, as I've not measured/investigated the trade-off.

[gaspodex.livejournal.com]

Yeah - He is right ... there are other factors involved that sometimes get missed - The lifespan thing is a biggy - most damage (and things going Phut) generally occurs when you switch on at the mains and theres a big power surge accross all the componets (high end Hifi Gear is particularly prone to this as are PC's)- in fact with some (not a lot but some) more power will be drawn in the powerup/startup phase than if you had left it on standby ...

Just thought I'd point out that... Switching off at the wall is nbot always teh best thing ...

Oh and in answer to someones question - yes if you swith off at the big power button on the set it shoudl not draw power (but thats only if you have to press the button again to make it come on - as judith said if it comes on with the remote then its not off - mind you, again its possible it will use more power turning it on than leaving it on standby ...)

[watervole.livejournal.com]

You can have Brownie points for keeping the same set for 30 years. The desire to upgrade everything as soon as something new comes along is a big cause of everything from toxic waste in the disposal to CO2 in the production.

It's hard to know exact risk on switching on and off. I've certainly heard that said with regard to some equipment, but I've no idea if anyone has quantified the risk or whether modern equipment is more robust.

I'd say that the initial thing to do is to measure power consumption in standby mode and base decisions on how much that is. With my stereo, it was a no-brainer, whereas my DVD player didn't even register on the meter.

As your set is very old, the standby consumption might be a lot higher than you suspect.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, our government intends to turn off normal TV in a few years and force us onto digital, which means either replacing a perfectly good TV or having to buy an extra electrical appliance, the set-top digital box, or giving up on TV altogether. All incredibly stupid, as I'm quite happy with TV image quality and don't want extra channels of crap.